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On March 21, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Innovation Board (“DIB”) released a report, Software is Never Done: Refactoring the Acquisition Code for Competitive Advantage (“the Report”), summarizing DIB’s Software Acquisition and Practices (SWAP) study, which was mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The two-year study involved conversations with Congress, the DoD, federally-funded research and development centers, contractors, and the public focused on ways in which DoD…

Last week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced significant policy changes for Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D programs. On April 1, 2019, CMS released the calendar year 2020 Rate Announcement and Call Letter, and on April 5, 2019, CMS release the unpublished version of a final rule revising the MA and Part D program regulations for 2020 and 2021 (scheduled to be published April 16, 2019). These documents include many…

Much that has been written about the bid protest reforms in the Section 809 Panel’s final report has focused on Recommendations 66-69, which expressly address (and propose changes to) the protest process at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and the Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”). But the 809 Panel’s most impactful recommended changes to the protest process actually may be contained in Recommendation 35 (“Rec. 35”). There, in the context of a discussion of…

It’s not every day that a contractor recovers nearly four times the value of its initial contract, especially when there’s a potential conflict of interest in the mix – but that is exactly what happened in Appeal of Phoenix Data Solution. On June 21, 2018, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (Board) awarded Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, formerly known as Aetna Government Health Plans (AGHP), over $11 million in claimed settlement costs plus…

On January 1, 2019, portions of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Final Rule expanding the availability of Association Health Plans (AHPs) went into effect. AHPs allow small businesses to band together and negotiate better deals when buying insurance for their members.
The partial government shutdown hasn’t slowed the raging debate over how states are to implement the DOL’s final rule. On December 28, 2018, a federal judge ordered litigation concerning the rule to continue…

On November 1, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) filed the pre-publication version of the CY 2019 Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (“2019 PFS Final Rule”). Within this massive publication, CMS finalized two regulatory changes affecting the exceptions at 42 CFR § 411.357 to the Physician Self-Referral Law (also known as the “Stark Law”) for compensation arrangements. The 2019 PFS Final Rule reconciles the regulations with the statutory changes made to the…